21

SpaceX Falcon Missions Section / Re: SpaceX F9/Crew Dragon : Crew-12 : CCSFS SLC-40 : NET 15 February 2026

« Last post by Tmccreight25 on Today at 06:17 pm »

Do we know yet what Dragon capsule is assigned to this mission? Personally my bet is C213 Grace although I suppose Resilience is also a possibility depending on how NASA feels about flying their crew on a Spacecraft that has gone all the way down to vacuum like Resilience did on Polaris Dawn. If Resilience doesn't fly Crew-12 I imagine it will fly VAST-1.

22

General Discussion / Re: War and the Russian and Ukrainian An-124's, and alternatives

« Last post by Hobbes-22 on Today at 06:11 pm »

The partial quote in the previous post left me scratching my head, so I've copied the whole thing instead.

Pursuant to the Senate National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 (sec. 141), Joint Explanatory Statement, the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) to inform a report to the congressional defense committees on future large and oversized air cargo transportation services. 

USTRANSCOM hereby solicits industry information on acquiring services of an airplane that:

(1) Is, as of June 2025, under development as a civilian aircraft.

(2) Would be capable of carrying space launch vehicles and other Department of Defense articles not more than 300 feet long that cannot be or, as of June 2025, are not readily transported in an airplane due to cargo dimensions.

(3) Could enter service not later than December 31, 2035.

(4) Could provide and supplement large and oversized fixed wing air cargo transportation services to support the readiness and logistical needs of the Department by December 31, 2035, and thereafter.

(5) Could provide to the Department at least 2,000 hours and not more than 7,500 hours of airplane time for at least 2 and not more than 5 years beginning when such airplane could enter service.

So in January 2026, they're putting out an RFI for aircraft in this category that have already been in development for at least 6 months, which rules out any new development.

(2) means an aircraft at least 25% longer than the C-5 Galaxy.

Anyone who's been following the aviation industry knows there are exactly 0 aircraft in this category. Job done, RFI can be closed.

23

Chinese Launchers / Re: ? - Gushenxing-1S (Y7) - Yellow Sea - January 15, 2026 (~20:10 UTC)

« Last post by Galactic Penguin SST on Today at 06:07 pm »

Mirroring of various live streams here:


Edit: Another:

24

SpaceX Falcon Missions Section / Re: SpaceX F9 : Starlink group 10-36 : CCSFS SLC-40 : 28 January 2026 (17:28 UTC)

« Last post by Galactic Penguin SST on Today at 06:01 pm »

And per SpaceX's mission page this has slipped all the way till February 11. Either to accommodate moving up the launch of Dragon Crew-12 (which would mean moving up by at least 1 week), or booster landing in Bahamas' paperwork is still not closed, or both.

25

Chinese Launchers / Re: ? - Gushenxing-1S (Y7) - Yellow Sea - January 15, 2026 (~20:10 UTC)

« Last post by Galactic Penguin SST on Today at 05:54 pm »

It is said this time the ship is De FU 15001 (德浮15001号), because the ship Dongfang Hangtiangang (东方航天港号) will be used for Jielong-3 on South of China.

The ship's name can be confirmed from the photo below:

https://twitter.com/Cosmic_Penguin/status/2011874199564955851

It is said the payloads might be Tianqi-1 37-40 (天启一号37-40).

Local media (e.g. https://m.weibo.cn/status/5255384487170621) seems to confirm this.

26

Orion and Exploration Vehicles / Re: EM-2/Artemis 2 Orion Construction and Processing Updates

« Last post by JSz on Today at 05:39 pm »

Visiting the toilet in Orion:

https://twitter.com/XploraSpace/status/2011546216631583060

DeepL translation:

Artemis II: A tour of the Orion spacecraft's toilets!

During their round trip to the Moon, our four astronauts will have to spend 10 days confined to a space measuring just 9 m³...
How do you manage your bodily needs when you're 400,000 km from Earth? Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency has the answer!

27

Chinese Launchers / Re: Chinese crewed lunar program

« Last post by TheKutKu on Today at 05:38 pm »

A picture of a slide from a presentation at the CASC 2026 annual work conference in Beijing on January 15th was shared on social media. The image is blurry, but two crucial pieces of information can be discerned: The launch of the CZ-10 cargo version (Lanyue) is planned for 2027, while the launch of the crewed version (Mengzhou) is planned for 2028.
The slide itself seems to be weeks to month old (shows CZ-12A as unflown but CZ-10B is named: sometime in H2 2025)

Given previous announcements (CZ-10 Y4 & Y5 dedicated to the first Chinese manned lunar landing, Manned lunar mission in 2028), this almost confirms that the current schedule for the Chinese manned lunar program is as follows:

CZ-10 Y1: Demonstration launch of Lanyue to the moon in 2027

CZ-10 Y2: Unmanned demonstration launch of Mengzhou to low lunar orbit in 2028

CZ-10 Y3: Crewed launch of Mengzhou to lunar orbit in 2028 ("Apollo 8" mission)

CZ-10 Y4: Launch of Lanyue to the moon in 2029

CZ-10 Y5: Crewed launch of Mengzhou to the moon in 2029 for landing

The alternative scenario (2 Lanyue demo launches + first crewed lunar flight of Mengzhou (referred to as Mengzhou-Y)) doesn't seem scredible.

28

Commercial Space Flight General / Re: Eutelsat OneWeb: Constellation - General Thread

« Last post by catdlr on Today at 04:51 pm »

https://twitter.com/VincentLamigeon/status/2011857099303817385

Vincent Lamigeon
@VincentLamigeon
·
Translated from French
Eutelsat orders about ten launches from MaiaSpace to deploy a portion of the 440 new OneWeb satellites. Launches scheduled from late 2027 to 2029. MaiaSpace thus secures 50% of the planned launches over the period.

29

Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV/SLS) / Re: Artemis II (EM-2) SLS UPDATES

« Last post by DaveS on Today at 04:50 pm »

NASA Artemis

@NASAArtemis
·
Knock knock! 🚪

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 recently arrived at the Vehicle Assembly Building at @NASAKennedy. On Jan. 17, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft will ride the crawler to Launch Pad 39B in preparation for the Artemis II mission around the Moon.

Earlier today between 10 am and 11 am EST, the crawler was moved into High Bay 3 underneath the Mobile Launcher in readiness for Saturday's rollout.

30

Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV/SLS) / Re: Artemis II (EM-2) SLS UPDATES

« Last post by catdlr on Today at 04:47 pm »

https://twitter.com/NASAArtemis/status/2011841402976506005

NASA Artemis

@NASAArtemis
·
Knock knock! 🚪

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 recently arrived at the Vehicle Assembly Building at @NASAKennedy. On Jan. 17, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft will ride the crawler to Launch Pad 39B in preparation for the Artemis II mission around the Moon.